Milan Design Week

Like a Contented Beetle

On the Chilean coast, near Valparaíso, the Casa dos Pieles is the most recent project by Verónica Arcos. It is an expressive volume in which a clever arrangement of membranes isolates internal spaces from excessive heat

Trained in Chile and then in the Netherlands, Verónica Arcos is one of Latin America’s up-and-coming architects. Over the course of a career in which she has combined teaching – often in terms of cutting-edge experimentation, especially with regard to building materials and techniques – and a professional practice that has chiefly found expression in a series of residential projects, a coherent and original language has emerged in her work. In fact, her main objective is to develop unconventional geometries, that do not conform to the often-mannered orthogonality of recent Chilean production but place the emphasis on methods of construction. The forms of her designs derive from processes of assembly and manipulation of finished elements that make structural stresses visible and generate unusual spaces. In addition, Arcos shows an understanding of local possibilities and how to exploit them, with regard to both the technical solutions available and local skills, as well as a thorough grasp of strict anti-seismic regulations. In the Casadetos project of 2008, for example, the folds in the wooden roof matched the shape of the metal girders that supported the building, creating a volume with a richly syncopated profile.

The Casa dos Pieles at Huaquén del Mar, just north of Santiago, represents another stage in this approach. In this case the volume is compact, but looks as if it has been deformed by the torsion of a telluric force. This holiday home is composed of two shells: the inner one, which has an economic structure of pine beams and pillars and chipboard panels covered with insulating material (mineral wool and zinc) is enclosed in a second membrane, made of pinewood planks stained a dark brown. The second skin is separated from the first, favouring the circulation of air during the hot summers, and rises above the windows to permit access, while at the rear it descends to the ground, leaving open only the space of the entrance, which looks like a cavity in the middle of a vaguely zoomorphic carapace. The block of the house, which is oriented towards the north to improve its thermal efficiency, is bent in such a way that the roof has the geometry of a hyperbolic paraboloid. Arcos refers here to the concept of a “fragmentary monolith”.

The finish of the Dos Pieles House is made of impregnated pine dyed dark brown in a dialogue with the landscape. (Photo Cristóbal Palma)

There are two bedrooms and a large space that combines the living room, dining room and kitchen which are located in a position that offers a view of the ocean all the way to the horizon. The border of the second skin above the sliding windows also covers the large wooden terrace which expands the space of the house outdoors and at the hottest times of day casts a shadow that helps to moderate the temperature range. The profile of the house, which is four metres high at the lowest point and rises to nine at the opposite end, allows for a second bedroom on the upper floor, with a terrace of its own. Looking at the volume from the route of access, which passes over a short footbridge, the supporting piles of the structure can be glimpsed under the wooden skin, as if the house were a gigantic beetle that has just found the ideal position to feel comfortable and protected. In this project Arcos has shown that she is able to come up with a memorable form, without relinquishing the conveniences of contemporary life.

A large space combines the living room, dining room and kitchen and opens onto the large wooden terrace which expands the space of the house outdoors. (Photo Cristóbal Palma)

We are on a broad bend in the Thames near the finishing line of the historic...

9 May 2019

Founded in 1961 by Piera Peroni Abitare magazine has crossed the history of costume, architecture and design, international, following in its pages the evolution of our ways of life and how we inhabit places